Why Change Management Is Necessary for Success

Every organization will, at some point, undergo a transition or change. Whether your company is undergoing an organizational change or a digital transformation, change can have a significant impact on your business as well as on your employees. Change management, or change deployment, is a systemic approach to implementing a change to infrastructure, processes, or technology. The author breaks down the change deployment process into six stages: analysis, design, pilot, rollout, reinforcement, and review. The first three deal with planning, while rollout is the change itself. The final two ensure that the change is securely embedded within the company. But change deployment doesn’t stop there. During and after the process, you need to continuously assess outcomes, track performance, train employees on new methodologies and business practices, and readjust goals as necessary to increase the likelihood of success.

A number of different methods of change deployment can take a company through these six stages. These are four models with solid credentials: Prosci’s ADKAR methodology, ITIL’s classification of the types of technological change, McKinsey’s alignment of seven interrelated components, and Lippit-Knoster’s identification and bridging of gaps between the current and future state. The ROI of change management can be huge. It is worth investing the time to get it right.